Best Way to Make an Interior Design Color Board

Professional interior designers often begin each project by gathering material samples based on their intuition and inspiration surrounding a particular space or spaces. In order to combine these materials, neatly display them and convey a consistent message to the client, it is a good idea to create an interior design color board that will guide all other material selections throughout the project.

• Purchase a large board that is easy to move and handle yet large enough to accommodate your many material samples. If necessary, trim the board to size. Tip: dark colored boards such as brown and gray often work best so that the samples don't seem to float from a stark white background.


• Gather your supplies and samples. You should have samples of options for covering the flooring, walls (including paint chips and wallpaper samples), and samples that relate to upholstery and other materials that might be included in the furniture scheme. It is also acceptable to collect sample images of rooms that have inspired you and have achieved the same effect that you hope to achieve for your project.


• Attach the samples to the surface of the color board. Use velcro if you need to be able to easily remove and reattach them during a presentation. For a more permanent display, rubber cement works fine without causing any damage to the board or samples.


• Group the samples by themes, such as flooring ideas, or wallpaper ideas. You can also organize it based on a particular room design, or even by pairing color concepts that you would like to explore.

The point of creating an interior design color board is not to finalize the look, but rather explore the possibilities for yourself, for your client and for other team members before committing to purchasing materials to create the final look. It opens the dialogue for an intense design discussion.